TIMELINE

The Powerhouse site is built on Lenni-Lenape land.

1650s - 1680s — This land was colonized by the Dutch in the 1600s followed by the British in 1685.

1760 - 1783 — Gowanus was the site of the historic Battle of Brooklyn during the American Revolution.

1840 - 1900s — The stretch of waterfront neighborhoods from Red Hook to Greenpoint emerged as the epicenter of American industrial activity.

1850s — The Gowanus Creek was built into the Gowanus Canal, making the waterway a major transportation hub. The area became known for the industrial arts of printing, pottery, glass, oil refining, and ironworking.

Following the development of the canal, the current Powerhouse site was occupied by warehouses and a sulfur works facility until it was sold in the 1890s to a railroad company that would become part of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT) Company.

1903 — The Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT) Power Station was constructed to supply electricity to the newly consolidated local steam railroad, elevated railroad and streetcar system.

The Power Station, along with a network of sub-stations around Brooklyn, generated power through Direct Current (DC) and Alternating Current (AC) generators to a coordinated system of steam railroads, elevated railroads, and streetcars.

Designed by Thomas E. Murray, the structure reflected the Romanesque Revival style popular at the time, with arched windows, steel lattice columns, and masonry exterior walls.

The original Powerhouse structure consisted of both a Turbine Hall, which housed a dynamo and eight 4,000 horsepower steam engines, as well as a Boiler House, where coal was delivered on conveyors from barges along the Gowanus Canal, feeding 32 steam furnaces.

1930s - 1970s — In the mid-twentieth century, Brooklyn’s dominance as a center of industrial production waned as a result of technological changes, new transportation methods, and the rise of mass production.

The steam furnaces of the Boiler House were decommissioned in 1938, and the Boiler House itself was torn down in the 1950s. In the late 1970s, the building became a cardboard incinerating facility.

1980s - 1990s — Over the next two decades, Gowanus became home to many artists. Major exhibitions took place including The Monumental Show, an outdoor and indoor exhibition organized by artists and curators Michael Keene, Frank Shifreen, and George Moore in 1981. A second exhibition, The Monument Redefined, was mounted in 1982. Both featured monumental sculptures along the Gowanus Canal, drawing thousands of visitors.

2000s — The building earned the colloquial name “The Batcave”. It became a destination for explorers and graffiti writers, whose work remains on its walls today.

2012 — Powerhouse Arts acquired the site of the former Brooklyn Rapid Transit Power Station.

2016 — Powerhouse commissioned the Pritzker Prize-winning architecture practice Herzog & de Meuron to reimagine the power plant and create facilities for fabrication.

2017 — Powerhouse completed a voluntary remediation process under the NYS Brownfield Cleanup Program as part of its commitment to environmental stewardship and to the revitalization of Gowanus.

2018 - 2019 — Major site work and construction milestones were completed to lay foundational groundwork for the structure’s future as a fabrication facility and multi-use arts center. Highlights include completion of a “load test” to determine if the building’s existing, historical piles could support the weight of the turbine hall and new boiler house; undertaking mockups to test red concrete techniques; and commencement of the boiler house’s foundations.

2020 — Construction continued, including installation of building systems (mechanical, electrical, plumbing, sprinklers), turbine hall facade improvements, and the topping out of the new boiler house. At the beginning of 2020, superstructure work on the boiler house began and the new building reached its full height in the summer. Work in the boiler house included interior masonry, carpentry, and the beginning stages of installation of windows. The boiler house’s red concrete walls were also completed in 2020.

2022 — Powerhouse Arts unites its operations in its new facility, bringing a historic, long-abandoned property back to life as a platform for artists and the public.